A large bullsnake was lying in the road. A large pickup truck rolled over it, but luckily it avoided running over the snake with the truck’s tires. I got out of our car, scooped up the bullsnake, and handed it to Laurie. The snake was squirking around, so she rolled down her wind and let it hang its head out the window like a dog. It calmed down a bit as we drove home. After photographing each other with the snake, I let it go in Rebecca’s Black Bamboo.
It seemed most appropriate that I was wearing an Alice Cooper T-shirt while holding the Bullsnake.
Jake and I saw a coyote on our walk at dusk.
Intermission: A photo taken by Laurie of the forest close to Tristan’s house in Germany.
Gwendolyn, the round-eyed devil, was waiting for grass.
Hey! Paparazzo! Looki. See? We need more juggin’ water! ¿Sí?
Silver: “You’re fast, Loki! I’m outta here!”
Our guard Hummingbird. He sits at the top of the Chitalpa, and if any suspicious-looking characters come around, he attacks them.
Owl Newz
Nora on the left. Hungry Willa and Walter in the middle. Osric on the right
Nora was on her branch giving sweet, higher pitched hoots to Osric, who was about 100 feet from her at the top of a tree. We figured she was giving him a grocery list.
Osric gave Nora a gopher. Hmmm! Could be a song!
When Osric brought Nora the critters, it was after dusk, so I only got a few halfway clear shots that I lightened up in post processing so we can see what the owls were up to.
Osric flew off and came back with a packrat.
My what big claws you have, Nora!
After Nora flew over to the nest, Osric flew in, dropped off the packrat in the nest and flew off. Apparently, Nora’s grocery list was for gopher and packrat.
Progression of the sunset tonight.
WARNING! WARNING! Snake photos below!
Me with Blue Boa
Many of you thought that bullsnake was huge. Now Blue is what I would call a huge snake.
I don’t believe I have ever posted a photo of myself with Blue Boa. I don’t handle her much because of my compromised immune system. The results of a recent blood test showed my white counts and absolute nuetrofils are low again. Reptiles carry salmonella, so people with compromised immune systems s should not handle them much.
Laurie took the photos. Blue Boa was squirming around a lot.
Spunk thinks he much better looking than that stinking snake.
Blue happily digesting dinner on her hot spot. She has a cute mustache.
If you ever wondered what a happy snake looks like, this is about as good as it gets. Blue was content and happily lounging on her hot spot last night after having two large rats for dinner. I feed her pre-killed rats once a month that I buy frozen, keep in the freezer, and thaw out a couple of days before feeding time. Then I heat the thawed rats in hot water before I feed them to her.
She decided she was really hungry last night after she shed her skin a few days ago. She was striking at anything that moved, mostly me, as I got her from her encloser into her feeding box. When I threw the heated rat in the feeding box, she grabbed it and constricted it like it was live prey. But then instead of just eating it, she had to play with it for a while. This is the only snake I know of that plays with her food. It’s very annoying because I want her to eat her rats so I can put her back in her enclosure.
How does a snake play with a dead rat you may be asking? After she’s constricted it for a while, she will bite it and drag it around the feeding box, push it around the feeding box with her nose, start to eat it, then stop, and check the other end of the rat. Often when I open the feeding box to see how she’s progressing, she will strike at me, and then resume playing with her food.
After she finishes eating her rats, she is satisfied and very easy to handle.
Blue, our red tail boa, is back from her few months at Tristan’s. The woman who thought she was interested in a boa was surprised by how long they live and how big they get, and lost interest in helping Tristan take care of Blue. After issues like the thermostat that controls the heating system in Blue’s cage failing, we decided to bring her back to our house where it’s much easier for me to take care of her.
This is a really cute baby Coachwhip Snake (Masticophis flagellum) that Marble brought inside and presented to us on Saturday. The morning temperatures have been freezing down to the mid teens in the mornings, but the high was around 70º F on Saturday afternoon; therefore, I guess this little guy was out trying to find another meal before hibernating, or Marble was scratching around in the mulch and found the snake. Lizards and snakes like to burrow into the mulch when it’s cold outside. The mulch is warm campared to the outside temperatures because of the composting action. You can see a photo of steam rising from one of our mulch piles on a cold morning at https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/9/bright-night-cool-steamy-morning. You can also see photos of a pair of adult Coachwhip Snakes in their mating ritual at https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2017/5/snakes-in-love. And lastly, you can see Spunk’s reaction to a Coachwhip Snake at https://wp.me/s1yQyy-snake.
Off Center & Not Even 